


From The Gutter Too

by ERNest



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Justice, Law Enforcement, Tall buildings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 20:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11654199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: If Inspector Javert ever had a first name, it has been forgotten in the dust and dark of the jail cell where he was born.





	From The Gutter Too

If Inspector Javert ever had a first name, it has been forgotten in the dust and dark of the jail cell where he was born. He has spent the rest of his life rising above the conditions of his youth in an attempt to prove to himself, more than the world, that he was the exception to the rule. As high as he can reach is never enough, so he goes to the edges of things to watch the patchwork of people and honest work and righteous rules. He is never in danger of falling because he has enough self-control to place each foot exactly where it must rest and nowhere else. If he were to go over the side, it would be absolutely intentional because he does not allow accidents.

Javert, who has always liked to climb up and up, lets his feet hang off the edge of a building. He frowns at a tear in his uniform. The sewer rat swiped a sword at him so he was – taken off guard – and that’s the only reason he let the criminal get away.

But that doesn’t matter right now, because he also has a problem he can solve, and that’s the rip on the left side of his jacket. He threads a needle and sews it back up. He hides all the torn edges and smiles at his handiwork.

***

Valjean keeps showing up wherever the inspector goes and this isn’t right; a criminal as good as this man ought to be better at hiding and the trail should have gone cold years ago. He doesn’t even care particularly about this man, but they seem to follow each other in a very long game that neither of them is controlling, and Javert is tired of it.

And _then_ he insists that he just needs to do this very good and lawful thing for someone and then he’ll be right back, he promises. As if the man expects anyone to believe that nonsense. And yet – Javert consistently finds himself agreeing to the ludicrous statement. He should really stop being so surprised when things like this happen. His life would be so much more ordered if he could manage that.

***

He didn’t ever expect to see Valjean again and wrote him off as just another fugitive. He figured that the Law would finish him off sooner or later, and now it turns out that he _is_ the agent of the Law that the situation would call for.

Soon he will capture the man he has seen twice before and the world will return to its proper course. It doesn’t matter if he falls as well, because he serves justice. He just wants to see the man safely behind bars, and then he will be able to rest.

Until then, he follows the signs. It doesn’t matter if the criminal is free for today, because Javert will be there tomorrow. As he walks along the roofs of Paris, heel-to-toe and the stars like a river overhead, mapping out the city in his head, he wonders if he’s missing the bigger picture, but then he thinks it doesn’t matter. Society may always be a web of injustice, but he can do his part to make things that much better than they were, one arrest at a time.

He swears to the stars that his will be the last face seen in the light, and then Prisoner 24601 will falter into darkness forever.


End file.
